Washington Kurdish Institute
Bill Rice October 13, 2019
Some 300 people gathered in Lafayette Park outside the White House gates in Washington, D.C. this Saturday, October 12 to protest U.S. President Donald Trump’s sudden decision to pull American forces back from their positions close to the Turkish border, allowing for Turkey to invade the predominately Kurdish region. The rally was organized by the American Rojava Center for Democracy.
Since Turkey’s invasion of northern Syria, which began last week, the Erdogan regime and its Syrian proxy militias have already been accused of planned ethnic cleansing and forced demographic changes, the killing of prisoners, the bombing and targeting of prisons holding ISIS fighters and their families, the bombing and targeting of Christian communities and religious sites, and the assassination of a prominent Kurdish political leader, Hevrin Khalaf.
In addition to marching and chants, Saturday’s protest featured speeches by Syrian Democratic Council (SDC) Co-Chief Sinam Mohamad and Virginia State Delegate Mark Levine (D-45th).
“We never wanted war, but it seems that Erdogan, he knows only the language of war,” Ms. Mohamad said. “He never spoke the language of peace.”
Ms. Mohamad noted the close history and cooperation between the U.S. and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), saying that they both fought and defeated ISIS together.
“You were our ally,” she said. “This isn’t what we expected from our ally…We didn’t expect from the United States to leave our people alone.”
Ms. Mohamad also emphasized the multi-ethnic and multi-religious nature of Northern Syria and the SDC’s inclusion and support of all these groups.
“All our Kurdish people, Arabs, Syriacs, Christians, Turkmen, Alawite, Yazidis – now they are under the threat of Erdogan,” Ms. Mohamad said. “We wanted to live together with the Arabs, with the Kurds, with the Syriac, with all the communities, with all the components of the north of Syria in Rojava.”
She also explained how the region is facing genocide and ethnic cleansing, and pointed to the example of Turkey’s occupation of Afrin as a harbinger of what is to come if Turkey and its Syrian proxy militias are not stopped.
“They want to genocide the Kurdish people in the region,” she said.
Ultimately, Ms. Mohamad called on the international community and the United States to establish a no-fly zone for the northern Syrian region, and asked that the U.S. continue to be engaged in assisting the region and its people.
Virginia State Delegate Mark Levine was the only U.S. elected official at the rally. In his speech he also emphasized the strong history between the United States and the Kurdish people.
“The Kurdish people have been our allies,” Levine said. “They’ve fought hard against ISIS. 11,000 brave Kurdish fighters are dead because of fighting these dangerous terrorists.”
Levine called on both Democrats and Republicans in the United States to “stand up” and say, “this will not happen on our watch.”
“This should not be a partisan issue, and I call upon every American of every religion, of every party to tell Donald Trump…that his position of power is in danger if he keeps up his cruelty, and it’s time for him to turn it around,” Levine said. “We have to tell Turkey: you want to be part of NATO? Get out of Kurdistan.”
At the conclusion of the rally, American Rojava Center for Democracy Vice President Flint Arthur called on attendees to continue action in support of the Kurds and the SDC, and invited them to join an upcoming protest on November 13th against President Erdogan’s planned visit to the United States to meet with President Trump.